June, 1917 
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 
285 
do not have the varieties staked and marked, 
make a plan of your garden on paper, showing 
the location of each tree or group of smaller 
plants and indicate the varieties and age. 
Individual tree labels also are valuable. 
Make them out of strips of zinc, three quarters 
of an inch wide at one end by one quarter 
wide at the other end, and eight inches long. 
Twist the narrow end loosely around a small 
limb. Before you put them on the trees im- 
merse them in vinegar for a few hours until 
they are corroded, after which an ordinary 
lead pencil mark will stay on them for years. 
Don’t forget that bees help greatly to pollen- 
ize or fertilize the blossoms. If no one else 
keeps bees in your neighborhood, get a hive of 
them yourself. 
All this care which I have suggested sounds 
like a whole lot of work. It is work, in one 
way. But in another way it is not. It is 
the kind of work that you will drop your 
amusements for, and that will absorb and 
interest you intensely till long after dark on 
many a long summer evening. All the fun 
and enjoyment in a home fruit garden does 
not come in harvest time and the winter. 
After you have watched your trees and plants 
from week to week for a little while, you will 
see that this little tree is growing the way you 
told him to, and that little plant is throwing 
out branches just as you directed her to. It 
will give you more genuine satisfaction to see 
the evolution of the leaves and the buds and 
the blossoms and the branches and the fruit 
than you will get from many of the bigger 
things of life. But maybe I’m mistaken. 
What’s Worth While in 
Snapdragons E - L F ^I™ GT0N 
NOTING SOME RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THIS POPULAR ALL-AROUND FLOWER FOR GARDEN AND GREENHOUSE 
S NAPDRAGONS were never so popu- 
lar as now. For many years they 
have had a place in the garden of 
the amateur, but it is only of recent 
years that they have been found in green- 
houses. During the last two or three seasons 
large numbers were grown by commercial 
florists and although they did not sell as well 
as had been hoped, it was easy to see that 
buyers were beginning to appreciate them 
as cut flowers. 
Naturally enough considerable hybridizing 
has been done by growers who have not been 
wholly satisfied with the varieties at hand, 
and as a result several greatly im- 
proved sorts are now in cultivation, 
some of them being valued princi- 
pally for their winter flowering 
qualities. Virginia, Nelrose, Rams- 
burg’s Silver Pink, Buxton’s Killar- 
ney Pink, Firebrand, Phelps’ White, 
Huebner’s Yellow and Black Prince 
are among the best of the forcing 
varieties. 
The favorite color among those 
who purchase Snapdragons is pink. 
Nearly all pink varieties have yellow 
throats, but V irginia is an exception. 
It is pure pink all through. It is 
quickly forced, too, and flowers in 
abundance may be cut in January. 
I his variety is propagated wholly by 
cuttings. Nelrose is a very eAcellent 
pink variety, one of the best, in fact, 
which has yet been shown. Mr. F. 
W. Fletcher of Auburndale, Mass., 
who originated Nelrose, intended it 
wholly for winter flowering, but ex- 
perience has shown that it is also 
well adapted to outdoor bedding, so 
that it is classed as an everblooming 
sort. Several medals have been 
awarded to this introduction. 
Huebner’s Winterflowering Snap- 
dragons are very new but promise 
well. Whether they will actually 
flower so freely in cold weather as 
to crowd out most of the others re- 
mains to be seen. There are three 
varieties, yellow, pink and white. 
All are strong growing and have 
long, thickly set spikes with long 
stems. The yellow is especially fine. 
Ramsburg’s Silver Pink is much 
grown but has one fault — it often 
comes with a soft tip. Buxton’s Pink 
is a very satisfactory grower but has 
a tendency to fade out quickly. Prob- 
ably Phelps’ W hite is the best of its 
color for winter forcing. W. S. 
Phelps of Marlboro, Mass., whose 
name it bears, is said to have come upon the 
original plant by accident, but recognized its 
quality and propagated from it freely. 
All the Antirrhinums so far discussed may 
be grown by any one with a little greenhouse 
and they are the kinds likely to be found in 
the retail florists’ shops. They must be 
grown from cuttings. A variety must be 
very well established indeed to come even 
fairly true from seed. Many growers start 
with the seeds of well known varieties and 
then single out the best plants from which to 
make cuttings, and so originate a variety or 
at least a “strain” by selection. 
Among the best varieties which may be 
grown from seed and which will flower well 
in the garden are Purple Giant, Buff Queen, 
Double W hite, Black Prince, Salmon Queen, 
Sutton’s Orange Scarlet and Carter’s Gold 
Crest. Several in the list come from Europe. 
Fred Roemer introduced Purple Giant and 
Ernest Benary gave us Double White. Sal- 
mon Queen is a recent English variety and a 
particularly fine bedder. Black Prince is an 
intermediate variety which is widely distri- 
buted and well suited for bedding purposes. 
The color is a very deep crimson and the 
leaves are exceptionally dark. Probably this 
variety comes more uniformly true 
than any other red. Carter’s Gold 
Crest is another English novelty with 
a color combination which makes a 
strong appeal to many people. It is 
soft pink, tinged with salmon and 
with a golden orange lip. This var- 
iety makes a remarkably brilliant 
bed. 
If grown among other plants or 
for cutting in summer the tall varie- 
ties may well be chosen. They attain 
a height of about three feet. For 
bedding, the intermediate varieties, 
which grow about eighteen i»ches 
tall, or the dwarfs, which are only a 
foot high, are to be preferred. In an 
exposed position on a lawn a bed 
of dwarfs shows up splendidly and 
they bloom profusely. Both the tall 
and the intermediate varieties are 
grown under glass. Some varieties 
that seldom get more than fifteen 
inches high in the garden will shoot 
up three feet in a greenhouse. Of 
course it is important to have long 
stems when the flowers are to be cut. 
Although really a perennial, the 
Antirrhinum is commonly handled 
as an annual, for it will bloom the 
first season even when seeds are sown 
in the open ground in April, May or 
first days of June. Earlier flowers are 
obtained by sowing the seed in 
March in a hotbed or coldframe. 
The plants like the sun, but will 
flower freely if they get it only half a 
day. Any good garden soil will be 
satisfactory but the finest flowers are 
grown when the soil is light and en- 
riched with old manure. It is im- 
portant to keep the seed pods picked; 
but all in all, few garden flowers re- 
quite less attention or give a longer 
season of bloom. 
When winter flowering plants are 
desired cuttings should be made in 
Types of new Winter-flowering Snapdragons which have become favorites for 
cut flower under glass 
